It’s amazing how quickly a decade can go by, but here we are. Ten years ago on March 3, Community Technology Network became a nonprofit. But it wasn’t really the beginning for CTN. In 2001 it began as a project of CompuMentor (now TechSoup). As a CompuMentor program, CTN thrived as a regional collaboration of informed technology and community empowerment professionals. Between 2001 and 2006, CTN worked closely with community technology practitioners to hold events, accumulate feedback from the community, and develop a series of best practices guides for bridging the digital divide.
When I was hired by TechSoup at the end of 2006 I was able to work on cleaning up and organizing the resources list available on the CTN website. But the project was in a transition, and by 2007 it needed a new home. I joined a steering committee to determine the future of CTN, and after several months of meetings and talking to local nonprofits to understand the need, we decided to launch as an independent nonprofit.
We were very fortunate to have received seed funding and volunteer support from Full Circle Fund, an engaged philanthropy group in San Francisco. Through their help, we were able to complete and submit the necessary paperwork to become a nonprofit.
Jay Hirschton, executive director of Full Circle Fund, shares, “We are proud to have been an early funder of CTN. As both or our organizations share the model of engaging people in service, we were thrilled to act as thought partners in helping CTN strengthen their volunteer program and love seeing the continued success of this program 10 years later!”
The image used here shows one of the first classes offered at Valencia Gardens housing development. To celebrate our 10 years, we will be publishing a blog post each day until March 3 with more snippets from our past. If you have a story about CTN, feel free to share via email or on our Facebook page.
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